J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern France 1832 > Guernsey Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Castle Cornet; Fort George, Guernsey ?1832

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Castle Cornet; Fort George, Guernsey’ ?1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 87 Recto:
Castle Cornet; Fort George, Guernsey ?1832
D23687
Turner Bequest CCLII 87
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 187 mm
Partial watermark ‘YMAN | 28’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘87’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLII – 87’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
On this page Turner worked two relatively detailed descriptions of the defensive structures around St Peter Port on the east coast of Guernsey. The upper sketch depicts the medieval fortress of Castle Cornet perched on its island in the harbour bay.1 At the bottom of the page are the wooded hills that rise steeply away from the southern part of the main town, capped off with the eighteenth-century barracks of Fort George. For the recurrence of this defensive complex in the sketchbook, see the entry for folio 29 verso (D23575; Turner Bequest CCLII 29a).
Towards the top left-hand corner of the page is a sketch of a lighthouse, which continues over onto folio 86 verso opposite (D23686; Turner Bequest CCLII 86a).

John Chu
April 2014

1
See Bryan Hugh St. John O’Neil, The History of Castle Cornet, Guernsey, Guernsey 1981.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Castle Cornet; Fort George, Guernsey ?1832 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-castle-cornet-fort-george-guernsey-r1175179, accessed 24 April 2024.